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750 Veloce Intake Parts on eBay, Weber 40DCO3

I am thinking about my 1958 Sprint Veloce’s future engine rebuild to original when I look for Veloce engine parts on eBay. All I have from the original Engine is the block with matching crank bearing caps and front cover. Having the original engine is a necessity if the car is ever going to be restored to absolute top dollar status but so is having all of the correct parts bolted to the engine. If you look at how much you can spend to get all these parts together you begin to see one of the reasons besides rarity that correct Veloces are so much more expensive than Normales.

The intake set-up on a 750 Veloce consists of a sand cast Aluminum intake manifold with a separate tapered water pipe, a pair of sand-cast Weber 40 DCO3 carburetors, a two piece Aluminum intake plenum and a firewall mounted sheet metal air filter canister fed from an intake horn built into the body on the drivers side front grill.

If you are restoring a 750 Veloce and you don’t have a pair of Weber 40DCO3’s, your wallet is in for a shock.

This set-up ended on eBay a few weeks ago for $3062 and change. Probably a pretty good deal since it all came from the same car.

A complete functioning intake group like that pictured above is probably the best way to purchase these parts. Even with a set-up like this there is no guarantee they all came from the same car but when you buy the bits one at a time off ebay the cost is maximized and the parts may need some fettling to get them to work together.

The parts below are currently on eBay ending 6/22/08. The pair of matched Webers are the jewels of the group and the seller is wise to separate them from the rest of the Alfa parts because they are common to several other period Italian cars, expensive Maseratis among them. The pair is considered matched if the serial numbers are close. Pictured here is the top cover for 40DCO3 3779, the other is 3787, matched enough for me!

Just so you know it’s not Bologna Japan.

Sand cast carbs take on this powdery gray appearance, one wants to be careful of what cleaning techniques are used on these. It would be a shame to mess these up.

Some of the guts exposed. They look pretty good on the inside.

I believe the mounting bolt pattern on DCO3’s is different than later DCOE’s, so you need this manifold if you are going to use the carbs above. Starting bid is $350.

Water passages are integral in later manifolds. To use the DCO3 manifold above requires this tapered water pipe. Starting bid is also $350.

Very nice welds on this water pipe. It could be reproduced, but would likely cost the same as buying an original one.

These plenums come up for sale more often than the rest of the parts seen here, probably because they were used on the early 101 Veloces that used Weber 40 DCOE2’s. Noted below, the 750 and 101 versions are different.

Those wing nuts sell for $40 regularly. The whole plenum is usually about $400, so the starting bid of $500 on this may never be seen.

The prices of these components are not so shocking to me now as they were when I first became aware of how special and rare they were. I think the price of 40DCO3’s has more than doubled in the last year, of course a lot of that is due to the Dollars slide compared to the Euro. I wish I had a spare couple thousand dollars laying around, I might me tempted, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea if these continue to go up.

4 thoughts on “750 Veloce Intake Parts on eBay, Weber 40DCO3”

Just a minor correction, the 750 lower plenum is NOT interchangeable with that for a 101 1300 or 1600 with DCOE’s. The DCO3 has a different bolt pattern at the plenum side than does the DCOE. The upper plenum cover, however, is the same on both.

I have seen a very nice pair of 40 DCO3 at the Oldtimer Market in Reggio Emilia near Bologna in Italy at March, 28 2009, offered by a professional italien Alfa Romeo Parts Dealer for 4.000 Euro. They were in good used condition, but to drive it takes you some work. He also offered a Bosch Distributor for Veloce 750 and 101 VJU BR47?? in fine condition for 800 Euro! And he seems to know what he’s doing. Complete Manifold with Linkage in also good order was offered from another Dealer for 500 Euro but could be get cheaper because business was as bad as the wheather on sunday. Noticeable for me was that realy rare parts, you didnt see for years at those events, were offered but with proud prices. Funny times?

ps.: I blasted my pair with glasspearls years ago, they are shining bright since, sic!